Weeds that damage crops have been a problem for farmers since farming began. A proper solution is to apply a narrow spectrum herbicide that effectively kills the exact species of weed in the field while having as few undesirable side effects as possible. But to do that, farmers first need to accurately identify the weeds in their fields. Using Talend Real-time Big Data, Bayer Digital Farming developed WEEDSCOUT, a new application farmers can download free.

The app uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to match photos of weeds in a Bayer database with weed photos farmers send in. Accessible all over the world, the photo database resides on a private cloud stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS). It gives the grower the opportunity to more precisely predict the impact of his or her actions such as, choice of seed variety, application rate of crop protection products, or harvest timing.